Sunday, January 23, 2011

My New Workspace



I finally got my workstation set up at work.  What I love about this setup is that it allows me to monitor a few things at the same time, while providing me with multiple options for the display of information.  I have always found switching between screens and applications to be an annoying thing to do and this kinds of setup allows me to keep focused on a specific task while having the ability to quickly check on other things.

If you are really interested in how other people setup their workspaces and personal productivity, then I suggest this great post by Christoper S. Penn on how he does it.  

From left to right in the picture, here is what I have going on:

Social Media Monitoring:  On the far left is a nice widescreen monitor connected to an older IBM desktop that I use almost exclusively for keeping an eye on my corporate Twitter feeds.  Perhaps I will do a separate post on how I use Hootsuite to do this.  Having a dedicated computer is great for me because I can take my laptop with me and just leave this separate machine running. 

Email: In middle I have another widescreen monitor that is dedicated almost exclusively to email.  It's so great having a screen exclusively for email because it helps you keep an eye on any important emails that might need attention.  I also use this screen for the occasional web task like looking at analytics but I don't do too much "testing" on this screen because I like to make sure I'm seeing my company's website like most users do - on small screens.  The screen isn't hooked up to the old Dell desktop that it is sitting on, that's just to keep it up and off the table.  

Laptop:  On the far right is a new Dell Vostro -which I am enjoying so far except for that I think it might be a little heavy -that use for any word processing or spreadsheet work.  Like I say above, I also test web content on the laptop screen and find it great for any other tasks that require my undivided attention.  I am able to concentrate better on the laptop because it's on the far right so I have to turn myself away from the other screens to use it and I find this helps me focus a bit better.

Anyways, that's what I have going on... how do you set up your workspace for productivity?


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